Description:
This chapter examines the range and form of narratives that give voice to approximately 500,000 'Forgotten Australians' who experienced out-of-home 'care' as children under the auspices of state government departments and/or non-government charitable organisations. These narratives are derived from the work of stakeholder support groups, official inquiries and academic historians. Among those working in this field, the authors have the unusual advantage of being both stakeholders and academics. They experienced out-of-home care as children and therefore qualify as Forgotten Australians, and are among the small number of care-leavers to have established academic careers. The few academics who come from care-leaver backgrounds attest to the manifold life-obstacles care-leavers encounter and the enduring 'headwinds' they must face in pursuing relatively unremarkable goals and aspirations, long after leaving care. It is this abiding personal burden that makes the task of restoring to them their voices, through the collection and propagation of their narratives, both necessary and urgent.